The past generation has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies that have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached “critical mass” and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of databases providing documents, media and computer programs through related distribution of Web documents, e.g. Web pages or electronic mail. Because of the ease with which documents are distributable via the Web, it has become a major source of data in all forms, e.g. documents, audio-visual presentations including movies, audio text and music, videos and computer programs.
Virtually all databases of such public information and data throughout the world are accessible and able to be searched via the Web. The ease with which great volumes of data may be searched from a computer attached to the Internet and equipped with a Web browser has led to the development of widespread electronic commerce over the Web. At the present time, it is becoming very rare to find a business organization of any kind that does not transact some aspect of the business via the Web.
The accessing of textual data from the Web is in the form of Web documents, e.g. Web pages available from Web sites that maintain databases of information from which such Web documents are formed. This is conventionally done via a Web browser installed at the receiving computer terminal or station that accesses the Web sites. The audio-visual content and computer programs are also accessible from databases maintained at such Web sites.
In the electronic commerce Web technology, the success of the global networks, such as the Web or Internet (used interchangeably herein), is very evident in the continually increasing volumes of transactions including consumer sales. However, in the areas of data distribution, including audio and video presentations, the opportunities for business profits has not kept pace with those in electronic commerce.
Through these global networks the user has access to vast repositories of data. In order for these database repositories and access to these databases to be continued to be maintained, more incentives need to be found for the providers and hosts of such databases. The demand for user access, as well as the amount of data that must be maintained in a database, has increased to such a great extent that goodwill and even advertising revenue are becoming insufficient compensation for the database maintainers and providers. Thus, the industry is facing the fact that increasingly the user accessing the data will have to be charged an equitable fee for the data.